Your new police state....

[takza]

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 83
September 1, 2011

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/


A SPOTLIGHT ON "TOP SECRET AMERICA"

Most people can vaguely recall that there was once no U.S. Department of
Homeland Security and that there was a time when you didn't have to take
your shoes off before boarding an airplane or submit to other dubious
security practices.

But hardly anyone truly comprehends the enormous expansion of the
military, intelligence and homeland security bureaucracy that has occurred
over the past decade, and the often irrational transformation of American
life that has accompanied it.

The great virtue of the new book "Top Secret America" by Dana Priest and
William M. Arkin (Little Brown, September 2011) is that it illuminates
various facets of our secret government, lifting them from the periphery of
awareness to full, sustained attention.

http://amazon.com/Top-Secret-America-Am ... 0316182214

Top Secret America, which builds on the series of stories the authors
produced for the Washington Post in July 2010, delineates the contours of
"the new American security state." Since 9/11, for example, some 33 large
office complexes for top secret intelligence work have been completed in
the Washington DC area, the equivalent in size of nearly three Pentagons.
More than 250,000 contractors are working on top secret programs. A
bewildering number of agencies - more than a thousand -- have been created
to execute security policy, including at least 24 new organizations last
year alone. And so on.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/

But the vast scale of this activity says nothing about its quality or
utility. The authors, who are scrupulous in their presentation of the
facts, are critical in their evaluation:

"One of the greatest secrets of Top Secret America is its disturbing
dysfunction."

"Ten years after the attacks of 9/11, more secret projects, more secret
organizations, more secret authorities, more secret decision making, more
watchlists, and more databases are not the answer to every problem. In
fact, more has become too much."

"It is time to close the decade-long chapter of fear, to confront the
colossal sum of money that could have been saved or better spent, to
remember what we are truly defending, and in doing so, to begin a new era
of openness and better security against our enemies."

(From this point of view, it was disappointing to hear the former chair of
the 9/11 Commission, Gov. Tom Kean, declare yesterday that "we are not as
secure as we could or should be." We need to accelerate along the path we
have been following, Gov. Kean seemed to say, not to fundamentally change
course.)

According to Priest and Arkin, "The government has still not engaged the
American people in an honest conversation about terrorism and the
appropriate U.S. response to it. We hope our book will promote one."

Despite the sobering subject matter, Top Secret America actually makes for
lively reading. It is full of the authors' remarkable insights, anecdotes
and encounters. Dana Priest explored some of the physical geography of the
classified world, taking elevators to unmarked floors in suburban office
buildings and driving up to guard booths at secret facilities to innocently
ask for information. She accompanied police in Memphis while they
conducted neighborhood surveillance with newfangled automatic license plate
readers. She was polygraphed at her request -- and found to be a poor
liar. Bill Arkin, whose painstaking research informed the entire work
(which is narrated by Priest), spent ten days in Qatar at the U.S. military
facility that controls air operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan,
and somehow got himself invited to classified briefings.

One question that lurks throughout the book is whether the excesses and
misjudgments that constitute so much of Top Secret America can be corrected
or reversed. The authors are not very optimistic, particularly since there
are so many people who benefit from current arrangements, however wasteful,
useless or pointless they might be.

By way of illustration they cite U.S. Northern Command, the newest
military command that is nominally responsible for defense of North America
but in practice is largely subordinate to other agencies and organizations.
"The fact that Northern Command would even continue to exist as a major,
four-star-led, geographic military command, with virtually no
responsibilities, no competencies, and no unique role to fill, demonstrated
the resiliency of institutions created in the wake of 9/11 and just how
difficult it would be to ever actually shrink Top Secret America," they
wrote.

Secrecy is naturally a persistent theme throughout the book. As is often
the case in national security reporting, the authors relied on unauthorized
disclosures to complement their own research and reporting. And in this
case, such disclosures served as a particularly effective antidote to
overclassification.

"Most of those who helped us did so with the knowledge that they were
breaking some internal agency rule in doing so; they proceeded anyway
because they wanted us to have a more complete picture of the inner
workings of the post-9/11 world we sought to describe and because they,
too, believe too much information is classified for no good reason," they
wrote.

At the same time, the authors noted that they "have left out some
information" based on national security considerations.

Top Secret America will be featured on PBS Frontline on September 6, the
book's official release date.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... etamerica/

[solarlord]

this happening allover the world not just the states

[solarlord]

could be a another way

[solarlord]

think i need a new avatar? maybe yogi bear what you do think taza - we have millions of people from north africa wanting to come to europe because they have nothing-not even water- the state has nothing to do but check on everybody and then check the checkers!

[Petros]

Every government has state secrets, and national security concerns. From the very beginning our government did not publicly disclose everything it did under the guise of state security, and our constitution allows for it. So there is nothing new here. The idea that a big bloated government bureaucracy is a waste of taxpayers money is not new either.

[takza]

Happened and is happening because the top 1 to 10% who own most of the country including the political process continued to exploit labor and resources around the world and in the US. 9/11 was in response to this. Then as a response to 9/11...they double down and we get even more of the same....only much worse. Except now the process is being continually modified by increasing overpopulation...diminishing resources...a stressed biosphere.

Attempts are continuing to use cheap energy/resources (not there anymore) to cover great debts...thus the wars for oil. Conservatives want to return to the 50's...build the military and out-steal the Chinese, etc. Nobody wants to wake up and realize that reality is done gonna bite and that the game is changing....and the big sign that says GAME OVER might be about to start flashing.

See the pretty graphs?

http://www.stockopedia.co.uk/content/th ... 008-59662/

New recession on the way...see chart below:



They are NOT going to deal with global warming and increasingly many resources will be needed to deal with the disruptions. The BIG MONEY can profit regardless of how it goes...so it will go the worst way? Wars and trashing the planet for remaining resources.

There's a program on PBS about how we got to be humans and how fantastic we are...think I'll go watch that ....STAT.

............................................................................................................................................................................

http://www.alternet.org/news/152231/5_u ... age=entire

In the meantime I will be selling these as a service to US citizens:



They will enable you to remain undetected by facial recognition technology and so retain some freedom. The more people who wear these...the more effective they become. So tell your friends and neighbors.

* All proceeds will go to research dedicated to finding the genetic basis for conservatism in our lifetimes. Think of the chilluns.

[Petros]

I do not see how religious fanatics, who have tried to revive a medieval suicide cult, all of who came from affluent middle eastern families, have anything to do with "exploitation". You need some better reading material.

We did not go to war over oil, it would have been far cheaper to just buy it. It was about several countries that harbor and finance terrorists and terrorism.

[takza]

It's about oil and other resources and who controls them? Both Saadam and Ghadafi wanted to trade their oil in something other than dollars? So does Iran.

http://www.alternet.org/story/152304/am ... age=entire

"Once the Libyans realize what the Iraqis and Afghans have bitterly discovered—that we have no interest in democracy, that our primary goal is appropriating their natural resources as cheaply as possible and that we will sacrifice large numbers of people to maintain our divine right to the world’s diminishing supply of fossil fuel—they will hate us the way we deserve to be hated. Libya has the ninth largest oil reserves in the world, which is why we react with moral outrage and military resolve when Gadhafi attacks his citizens, but ignore the nightmare in the Congo, where things for the average Congolese are far, far worse."

[emmahumpfritter]

Buy Gold and silver.

Buy guns and ammo.

Learn how to shoot.

Vote for Ron Paul.

Global Warming does not exist. Control freak tyrants do. The police state is going hot to squelch the masses of awakening people.

Latest news: the NFL now plans to grope your nuts (and your wife's breasts) at football games. I'm even happier I don't give a hoot about watching people run around with a ball in silly outfits.

[takza]

Buy Gold and silver.

Buy guns and ammo.

Learn how to shoot.

Vote for Ron Paul.

Global Warming does not exist. Control freak tyrants do. The police state is going hot to squelch the masses of awakening people.

Latest news: the NFL now plans to grope your nuts (and your wife's breasts) at football games. I'm even happier I don't give a hoot about watching people run around with a ball in silly outfits.

Football is some people's religion...like wars are for others.

Global warming does exist...just ask Al Gore.

Fairly soon they will expand the feel you up stuff to trains and buses....then eventually...to unannounced grope-fests along the highways. I'd like to see some pics of them groping some of those people who frequent Walmarts! Now that would be entertaining....bet they just can't wait to get into that.....

[ARCHINSTL]

I'd like to see some pics of them groping some of those people who frequent Walmarts! Now that would be entertaining....bet they just can't wait to get into that.....

Many of those peeps in those SleazeMart (oops, WalMart) photo montages would never use an airplane; they are unable to fit into a seat...
Tom M.

[takza]

I'd like to see some pics of them groping some of those people who frequent Walmarts! Now that would be entertaining....bet they just can't wait to get into that.....

Many of those peeps in those SleazeMart (oops, WalMart) photo montages would never use an airplane; they are unable to fit into a seat...
Tom M.

The point being that they have stated their intention to do security for trains and buses similar to what they do for air travel. And since Walmart seems to be on the cusp of the security state....they are a natural. But the secret rats have to add new things gradually so as not to spook the herd. So....shhhhhhhh.

[takza]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e29292.htm

"Is history getting too close for comfort for the fragile little American heart and mind? Their schools and their favorite media have done an excellent job of keeping them ignorant of what their favorite country has done to the rest of the world, but lately some discomforting points of view have managed to find their way into this well-defended American consciousness.

First, Congressman Ron Paul during a presidential debate last month expressed the belief that those who carried out the September 11 attack were retaliating for the many abuses perpetrated against Arab countries by the United States over the years. The audience booed him, loudly.

Then, popular-song icon Tony Bennett, in a radio interview, said the United States caused the 9/11 attacks because of its actions in the Persian Gulf, adding that President George W. Bush had told him in 2005 that the Iraq war was a mistake. Bennett of course came under some nasty fire. FOX News (September 24), carefully choosing its comments charmingly as usual, used words like "insane", "twisted mind", and "absurdities". Bennett felt obliged to post a statement on Facebook saying that his experience in World War II had taught him that "war is the lowest form of human behavior." He said there's no excuse for terrorism, and he added, "I'm sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of love for my country." (NBC September 21)

Then came the Islamic cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, who for some time had been blaming US foreign policy in the Middle East as the cause of anti-American hatred and terrorist acts. So we killed him. Ron Paul and Tony Bennett can count themselves lucky."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lethJ2I ... r_embedded